21 States See Rise in Home Foreclosures

Although nationwide foreclosure filings dipped 2 percent in February compared with a month earlier, in 21 states foreclosure filings were on the rise, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace. East Coast and Midwest cities reported sharp increases in foreclosures for the month.

Many homeowners across the United States were experiencing housing woes with one in every 637 housing units hit with a foreclosure filing, according to the report. Some 206,900 U.S. properties had foreclosure notices filed on them in February.

"February's numbers point to a gradually rising foreclosure tide as some of the barriers that have been holding back foreclosures are removed," said Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac said in a statement. "Although national foreclosure activity was pushed lower by decreases in a handful of larger states, 21 states posted annual increases in foreclosure activity, the most states with annual increases since November 2010.

"The foreclosure and mortgage settlement filed in court earlier this week will help pave the way to a properly functioning foreclosure process by providing a clear roadmap for necessary foreclosures," Moore continued. "That should result in more states posting annual increases in the coming months. Not surprisingly, many of the biggest annual increases in February were in states with the more bureaucratic judicial foreclosure process, which resulted in a larger backlog of foreclosures built up over the last 18 months in those states."

In the nation's largest metro areas, 10 out of 20 experienced a hike in foreclosure activity year-over-year. Riverside-San-Bernardino, Atlanta, Phoenix, Miami and Chicago were the metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates.